Open Journal Systems

A systematic literature review of the preferred organizational conflict management styles in Malaysia

Muhammad Aiman Awalluddin, Anisa Safiah Maznorbalia

Article ID: 1597
Vol 8, Issue 2, 2023, Article identifier:

VIEWS - 875 (Abstract) 974 (PDF)

Abstract

Conflict is considered an inevitable aspect of human social relationships and an inevitable and significant occurrence in all organizations. This study will review the literature on preference conflict organizational management style in Malaysia. From 2013 to February 2023, a systematic examination of the three most databases was conducted. Articles from peer-reviewed journals that examine conflict management styles in Malaysia and are consistent with the theory of conflict management style were included to achieve the research goals. The reviewers independently applied the selected criteria, extracted the data, and evaluated the quality of the study. Eleven of the 635 studies discovered met the inclusion requirements. The findings indicate that Malaysia’s preferred management style is integrative and compromising. However, if the organization’s demographics are multicultural, Malaysians tend to employ a conflict-avoidance style to avoid significant conflicts. Depending on the circumstances, the research indicates that Malaysians are pacifists and fighters in conflicts threatening their well-being. They attempt to become more respectful while maintaining positive relationships with all parties involved. The study provides several significant contributions for practical purposes and knowledge to interested parties, such as managers and organizational leaders, in determining the best practice for conflict resolution. Further research is required to investigate the state of the employee-employer relationship following the implementation of the proposed conflict resolution style.

Keywords

organizational conflict; conflict management; organization performance; workplace; Malaysia

Full Text:

PDF



References

1. Katz D, Kahn RL. The social Psychology of Organization. Wiley; 1978.

2. Hatch MJ. Organizational Theory: Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives. Oxford University Press; 1997.

3. Rose RC, Suppiah WR, Uli J, Othman J. A face concern approach to conflict management—A Malaysian perspective. Journal of Social Sciences 2006; 2(4): 121–126. doi: 10.3844/jssp.2006.121.126

4. Henry O. Organizational conflict and its effects on organizational performance. Research Journal of Business Management 2009; 3(1): 16–24. doi: 10.3923/RJBM.2009.16.24

5. Hotepo OM, Asokere ASS, Abdul-Azeez IA, Ajemunigbohun SSA. Empirical study of the effect of conflict on organizational performance in Nigeria. Business and Economics Journal 2010; 2010: 15774096.

6. Ferine KF, Aditia R, Rahmadana MF, Indri. An empirical study of leadership, organizational culture, conflict, and work ethic in determining work performance in Indonesia’s education authority. Heliyon 2021; 7(7): e07698. doi: 10.1016/J.HELIYON.2021.E07698

7. Overton AR, Lowry AC. Conflict management: Difficult conversations with difficult people. Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery 2013; 26(4): 259–264. doi: 10.1055/S-0033-1356728

8. Zajac S, Woods A, Tannenbaum S, et al. Overcoming challenges to teamwork in healthcare: A team effectiveness framework and evidence-based guidance. Frontiers in Communication 2021; 6: 606445. doi: 10.3389/FCOMM.2021.606445/BIBTEX

9. Giebels E, Janssen O. Conflict stress and reduced well-being at work: The buffering effect of third-party help. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 2007; 14(2): 137–155. doi: 10.1080/13594320444000236

10. Hon AHY, Chan WW. The effects of group conflict and work stress on employee performance. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 2013; 54(2): 174–184. doi: 10.1177/1938965513476367

11. De Dreu CKW, Weingart LR. Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology 2003; 88(4): 741–749. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.741

12. Lu L, Zhou F, Leung K. Effects of task and relationship conflicts on individual work behaviors. International Journal of Conflict Management 2011; 22(2): 131–150. doi: 10.1108/10444061111126675/FULL/HTML

13. Ismail KM, Richard OC, Taylor EC. Relationship conflict in supervisor-subordinate dyads: A subordinate perspective. International Journal of Conflict Management 2012; 23(2): 192–218. doi: 10.1108/10444061211218302/FULL/HTML

14. Caesens G, Stinglhamber F, Demoulin S, et al. Perceived organizational support and workplace conflict: The mediating role of failure-related trust. Frontiers in Psychology 2018; 9. doi: 10.3389/FPSYG.2018.02704

15. Pace RW. Organizational Communication. Prentice Hall; 1983.

16. Chen N, Chao MC, Xie H, Tjosvold D. Transforming cross-cultural conflict into collaboration: The integration of western and eastern values. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management 2017; 25(1): 70–95. doi: 10.1108/CCSM-10-2016-0187

17. Elgoibar P, Munduate L, Euwema MC. Editorial: Conflict management and trust relationships in organizations. Frontiers in Psychology 2021; 12: 764332. doi: 10.3389/FPSYG.2021.764332/BIBTEX

18. Claßen CAE, Schulte R. How do conflicts impact change in family businesses? The family system and familiness as a catalytic converter of change. Journal of Organizational Change Management 2017; 30(7): 1198–1212. doi: 10.1108/JOCM-04-2016-0071/FULL/HTML

19. Kammerlander N, Dessi C, Bird M, et al. The impact of shared stories on family firm innovation: A multicase study. Family Business Review 2015; 28(4): 332–354. doi: 10.1177/0894486515607777

20. Mikkelsen EN, Clegg S. Unpacking the meaning of conflict in organizational conflict research. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 2018; 11(3): 185–203. doi: 10.1111/NCMR.12127

21. Patrick HA, Kumar VR. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges. SAGE Open 2012; 2(2): 1–15. doi: 10.1177/2158244012444615

22. Gözde Koyuncu A, Chipindu RD. How cultural differences influence conflict within an organization: A case study of Near East University. International Journal of Organizational Leadership 2020; 8(1): 112–128. doi: 10.33844/IJOL.2020.60478

23. Abdul Aziz R, Noranee S, Hassan N, et al. The influence of leader power on interpersonal conflict in the workplace. Journal of International Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship 2021; 6(1). doi: 10.24191/jibe.v6i1.14213

24. Kassim MAM, Abdullah MS, Mansor MF. The mediating role of conflict management styles between organizational justice and affective commitment among academic staffs in Malaysian public universities. MATEC Web of Conferences 2018; 150: 1–9. doi: 10.1051/matecconf/201815005012

25. Siira K. Conceptualizing managerial influence in organizational conflict—A qualitative examination. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 2012; 5(2): 182–209. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-4716.2012.00096.x

26. Osad OI, Osas UE. Harmonious industrial relations as a panacea for ailing enterprises in Nigeria. Journal of Asian Scientific Research 2013; 3(3): 229–246.

27. Jehn KA. A qualitative analysis of conflict types and dimensions in organizational groups. Administrative Science Quarterly 1997; 42(3): 530–557. doi: 10.2307/2393737

28. Putnam LL, Poole MS. Conflict and negotiation. In: Jablin FM, Putnam LL, Roberts K, et al. (editors). Handbook of Organizational Communication. SAGE Publications, Inc.; 1987. pp. 549–599.

29. Almost J, Doran DM, McGillis Linda H, Laschinger HKS. Antecedents and consequences of intra-group conflict among nurses. Journal of Nursing Management 2010; 18(8): 981–992. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01154.x

30. Kunaviktikul W, Nuntasupawat R, Srisuphan W, Booth RZ. Relationship among conflict, conflict management, job satisfaction, intent to stay, and turnover of professional nurses in Thailand. Nursing and Health Sciences 2000; 2: 9–16. doi: 10.1046/j.1442-2018.2000.00033.x

31. Elmagri MI, Eaton D. Identifying the factors causing interpersonal conflict in organizations: Through analysing secondary data. The Built & Human Environment Review 2011; 4(1): 6.

32. John-Eke EC, Akintokunbo OO. Conflict management as a tool for increasing organizational effectiveness: A review of literature. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2020; 10(5): 299–311. doi: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v10-i5/7198

33. Murerwa T, Guantai F. Conflicts and conflict management in modern organizations—A pre-conflict resolution environment approach. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 2019; 9(8): 2250–3153. doi: 10.29322/IJSRP.9.08.2019.p92104

34. Blake RR, Mouton JS. The Managerial Grid. Gulf Publishing Company; 1994.

35. Thomas KW. Conflict and conflict management. In: Dunnette MD (editor). Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Rand-McNally; 1976. pp. 889–935.

36. Rahim MA. A measure of styles of handling interpersonal conflict. Academy of Management Journal 1983; 26(2): 368–376. doi: 10.2307/255985

37. Holt JL, De Vore JC. Culture, gender, organizational role, and styles of conflict resolution: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 2005; 29(2): 165–196. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.06.002

38. Daly TM, Lee JA, Soutar GN, Rasmi S. Conflict-handling style measurement: A best-worst scaling application. International Journal of Conflict Management 2010; 21(3): 281–308. doi: 10.1108/10444061011063180

39. Fajana S, Shadare OA. Workplace relations, social dialogue and political milieu in Nigeria. International Journal of Business Administration 2012; 3(1): 75–83. doi: 10.5430/ijba.v3n1p75

40. Abdullah AS, Al-Shourah AAS. The impact of conflict management on organizational effectiveness (A case study: Ministry of higher education of Jordan). European Journal of Business and Management 2015; 7(36): 75–79.

41. Ohbuchi K, Atsumi E. Avoidance brings Japanese employees what they care about in conflict management: Its functionality and “good member” image. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 2010; 3(2): 117–129. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-4716.2010.00052.x

42. Thomas KW, Thomas GF, Schaubhut N. Conflict styles of men and women at six organization levels. International Journal of Conflict Management 2008; 19(2): 148–166. doi: 10.1108/10444060810856085

43. Spaho K. Organizational communication and conflict management. Management–Journal of Contemporary Management Issues 2013; 18(1): 103–118.

44. Haddaway NR, Macura B, Whaley P, Pullin A. ROSES RepOrting standards for systematic evidence syntheses: Pro forma, flow-diagram and descriptive summary of the plan and conduct of environmental systematic reviews and systematic maps. Environment Evidence 2018; 7(7). doi: 10.1186/s13750-018-0121-7

45. Shaffril HAM, Ahmad N, Samsuddin SF, et al. Systematic literature review on adaptation towards climate change impacts among indigenous people in the Asia Pacific regions. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020; 258: 120595. doi: 10.1016/J.JCLEPRO.2020.120595

46. Okoli C. A guide to conducting a standalone systematic literature review. Communications of the Association for Information Systems 2015; 37: 879–910. doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.03743

47. Martín-Martín A, Orduna-Malea E, Thelwall M, López-Cózar ED. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A systematic comparison of citations in 252 subject categories. Journal of Informetrics 2018; 12(4): 1160–1177. doi: 10.1016/J.JOI.2018.09.002

48. Brereton P, Kitchenham BA, Budgen D, et al. Lessons from applying the systematic literature review process within the software engineering domain. Journal of Systems and Software 2007; 80(4): 571–583.

49. Rahim MA. Toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. The International Journal of Conflict Management 2002; 13(3): 206–235.

50. Ramayan SK, Bakar IAA, Kutty VSS, Rosa KK. Causes of intercultural conflict and its management styles among students in Sunway University. Idealogy Journal 2020; 5(2): 199–214. doi: 10.24191/IDEALOGY.V5I2.242

51. Sahban MA, Abbas Q. Comparison of conflict management style between Malaysian and Thai employees: A case study in top glove corporation. Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies 2018; 4(2): 207–220. doi: 10.26710/jbsee.v4i2.244

52. Tabassi AA, Bryde DJ, Abdullah A, Argyropoulou M. Conflict management style of team leaders in multi-cultural work environment in the construction industry. Procedia Computer Science 2017; 121: 41–46. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.007

53. Musah AA, Ghazali Z, Isha ANS. Turnaround maintenance workers cultural values and conflict management style preference: Moderating role of temperament. SHS Web of Conferences 2018; 56: 02004. doi: 10.1051/shsconf/20185602004

54. Hamid AHA, Bakar AYA. The conflict management styles in Malaysia Teachers Training Institute: A preliminary study. Global Conference Series: Social Sciences, Education and Humanities 2020; 5: 62–66. doi: 10.32698/GCS-PSSHERS346

55. Ariffin HDF, Mazhisham PH, Rochimin AT. The relationship between conflict handling styles and organizational commitment at eversafe extinguisher Sdn. Bhd. Journal of Management & Muamalah 2019; 9(2): 4–16.

56. Kassim MAM, Ibrahim HI, Manaf AHA, Abdullah MS. Investigating organizational justice and conflict management styles among bank employees in Malaysia. International Business Management 2016; 10(28): 6389–6395. doi: 10.36478/ibm.2016.6389.6395

57. Izham M, Sahadila N, Hanim A. Headteachers conflict management styles and teachers job satisfaction in Malaysian primary schools. International Journal of Educational Best Practices 2017; 1(2): 38–49. doi: 10.31258/ijebp.v1n2.p38-49

58. Johari A, Morni A, Bohari DFA, Sahari SH. Conflicting environment at workplace: UiTM Sarawak’s lecturers. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 2013; 101: 554–563. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.228

59. Jamail M, Don Y, Zain FM. Distributed leadership and conflict management style of generation Y teachers: Malaysian context. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2019; 9(7): 1298–1320. doi: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v9-i7/6335

60. Rahim MA, Garrett JE, Buntzman GF. Ethics of managing interpersonal conflict in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics 1992; 11(5–6): 423–432. doi: 10.1007/BF00870554/METRICS

61. Rahim MA. Managing Conflict in Organization, 3rd ed. Greenwood Publishing Group; 2001.

62. Noh CHC, Yusooff F, Hasim MS. Communication patterns of Malay families in Terengganu, Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 2013; 102: 635–642. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.781

63. Wahab NA. A successful leadership: Preferable leadership styles among senior managers in Malaysia. In: Proceeding of the 8th International Conference on Management and Muamalah 2021 (ICoMM 2021); 8 June 2021; Kajang, Malaysia. pp. 839–847.

64. Jusoh MH, Ibrahim MY, Noh CHC, Abdullah TNT. Leadership communication among youth leader in Malaysia. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Science, Technology, Engineering and Industrial Revolution (ICSTEIR 2020); 14–15 November 2020; Bandung, Indoensia. p. 536.

65. Lussier R. Human Relations in Organizations: Applications and Skill Building. McGraw Hill; 2010.

66. Oh JH, Kim HS, Lee JH. Asian cultural collectivism, acculturation, and life satisfaction among ethnic Asian brides in South Korea. Asian Women 2014; 30(3): 23–56. doi: 10.14431/aw.2014.09.30.3.23

67. Liu SS, Morris MW, Talhelm T, Yang Q. Ingroup vigilance in collectivistic cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2019; 116(29): 1–35. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1817588116

68. Ma K, Pitner R, Sakamoto I, Park HY. Challenges in acculturation among international students from Asian collectivist cultures. Higher Education Studies 2020; 10(3): 34–43. doi: 10.5539/hes.v10n3p34


DOI: https://doi.org/10.54517/esp.v8i2.1597
(875 Abstract Views, 974 PDF Downloads)

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Muhammad Aiman Awalluddin, Anisa Safiah Maznorbalia

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/